Preparing for Totem 2.0: Design and Fabrication of Two Second Growth Shaping and Carving Apparatus

几千年来，沿太平洋西北海岸的原住民一直使用老雪松树雕刻图腾柱。这些举世公认的标志性古迹对这些独特文化的社会、精神和经济健康至关重要。殖民化和资本主义工业化的影响之一是，利润驱动的资源开采和森林砍伐破坏了不列颠哥伦比亚省旧生态系统的存在和健康，使得越来越难以接近许多第一民族所说的“生命之树”。很明显，我们不能继续快速采伐老树，而且我们的保护努力不应以限制土著人民继续实践其文化的重要部分为代价。世界著名艺术家Carey Newman已经找到Camosun Innovates来帮助设计和制造一种设备，这种设备将使图腾雕刻的某些方面更安全，更有效，同时也为下一代雕刻者提供更大的灵活性，以利用除老树以外的资源。而不是将原木放在梁，沙袋或轮胎上的标准做法，纽曼建议创造能够轻松地将图腾从地面抬起到符合人体工程学的工作高度，而不是使用千斤顶，重物或起重机来旋转原木以获得进入底部的机会，能够安全地旋转图腾到位，保护雕刻的成品部分。从生态学的角度来看，更重要的是，这个装置不仅可以容纳老的或初生的原木，还可以容纳第二和后续生长的树木。具体来说，为了减少对老树的需求，纽曼建议开始用多根次生木雕刻图腾，这些木材可以在排列时雕刻，稍微间隔，在半圆形或圆形中。这种由艺术家开创的新设计将更加生态合理（使用更多可用的次生树，而不是更稀少和重要的老树），并提供类似的规模，但为传统图腾的传统形状和设计提供更多样化的方法。这种新的图腾雕刻方法将被广泛使用，为雕刻者开辟了创新的艺术可能性，也为采伐古老的树木提供了另一种选择。

For millennia, First Nations along the Pacific Northwest Coast have used old growth cedar trees to carve totem poles. Recognized around the world, these iconic monuments are vital to the social, spiritual, and economic health of these distinctive cultures. One of the impacts of colonization and capitalist industrialization is that profit driven resource extraction and deforestation have devastated the existence and health of old growth ecosystems across British Columbia, making it more and more difficult to gain access to what many First Nations people refer to as "The Tree of Life." It is clear both that we cannot continue the rapid harvest of old growth trees, and that our conservation efforts should not come at the cost of restricting Indigenous peoples from continuing to practice essential parts of their culture. The world-renowned artist Carey Newman has approached Camosun Innovates to help design and fabricate an apparatus that will make certain aspects of totem carving safer and more efficient, while also providing greater flexibility for the next generation of carvers to utilize resources other than old growth trees. Rather than the standard practice of perching the log on beams, sand bags or tires, Newman proposes creating the ability to easily lift the totem off the ground to an ergonomic working height, and instead of using jacks, peavies or hoists to rotate the log to gain access to the underside, to be able to safely rotate the totem in place, protecting the finished parts of the carving. More significant from an ecological perspective, this apparatus will be able to accommodate not only old-growth or first-growth logs, but second and subsequent growth trees as well. Specifically, to reduce the need for old growth trees, Newman proposes to start carving totems out of multiple second-growth timbers that can be carved while arranged, slightly spaced apart, in a semi- or full circle. This new design, being pioneered by the artist, would be more ecologically sound (using the more available second-growth trees rather than the scarcer and significant old-growth) and provide similar scale, but room for a more varied approach to the traditional shape and design of traditional totems. This new method of totem carving will be made widely available, opening up innovative artistic possibilities for carvers and an alternative to harvesting old-growth trees.